Erling Haaland should be the reason everyone stays at Borussia Dortmund
With football finally returned, Erling Haaland demonstrated immediately why no one should want to leave Dortmund anytime soon
The Norwegian striker is beyond remarkable; Erling Haaland is dominating in a way that few players do during their ascent as young men. In a sport dominated by players whose work ethic becomes legendary, whose depth pool spans an entire globe of people, Haaland is crushing them all. He wasted no time in the first game back since the play was suspended across the world.
Whether in the Austrian Bundesliga, the Champions League or the German Bundesliga, Erling Haaland hasn’t been stopped at all. Ten goals in one competition is fine in a year; ten in two in one year is great. Three competitions with ten goals in them for a player of only 19-years is astounding; it is scary for those playing against him and should be remarkably enticing for his teammates.
While Dortmund was kicked out of the UCL by PSG right before football was suspended, the domestic schedule still remains; no matter what in this year, the future is bright for Borussia Dortmund.
Erling Haaland: A future worth gambling on a bit
What makes Erling Haaland so astounding? His physical abilities are obvious and breathtaking; he runs as fast as a dear and is quite large to boot. While he can bully people when he needs to, like Kylian Mbappe of France, he can speed past them as similarly.
Borussia Dortmund is stacked beyond compare; Jadon Sancho, Erling Haaland, Julian Brandt, Marco Reus, Thorgan Hazard and others make Dortmund no fun for anyone to play against. Unfortunately, the high profile abilities of all of these players make their stay at Dortmund seem unlikely in the long term.
In the short term, each of the aforementioned should remain in Germany for now; playing with a talent like Erling Haaland is much like playing with Kylian Mbappe. Because of their own remarkable ability and talent, they attract talent to remain in places it may have otherwise left earlier.
Given another two years together, Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho and Thorgan Hazard could be near impossible to stop; a German treble would certainly be a real possibility and from there, the rewards would be far greater than were they all to leave as soon as possible.
Pausing to move forward
After any type of real European success, the players involved are highly coveted; were that success to include German dominance as well, it would be difficult to imagine the paydays for the young talent of Dortmund to be anything short of massive.
We can look at how this strategy has worked out for Ajax and their young talent; by staying in the Netherlands for a few years longer than many of them could’ve, they lit the world ablaze with European upsets.
The money that 2018-19 season garnered those players likely is not capable of being understated; as they all find themselves moved on (or in the process of doing so), it is likely that no player feels any remorse at staying together to do something remarkable.
Fast forward back to Dortmund; this lays in the wings for this team. All that is needed is some patience; they need to stay together, train together, work together and build a real rapport with one another. By doing this, they will overcome anyone else in their way; the talent at their disposal is just too massive for many other clubs to compete, were everything aligned accordingly.
Patience for Erling Haaland
Patience is needed, not petulance. Leaving Haaland as he has just arrived could be a detriment to his production, as well as what that production can garner Borussia Dortmund if properly harnessed. Jadon Sancho needs to hold off another year, maybe more; Thorgan Hazard needs to continue to develop; so does Julian Brandt. If all of these pieces come together, they will be hard to stop; this isn’t to count the ones they will continue to add in the months and years to come either.
It is unrealistic to leave a club ascending, simply because another club has more money to do the same task; who has better players? It is hard to argue that many places in football have better scenarios currently than Dortmund; their roster is hard to argue against as well. Getting the most out of those two notions is key; Erling Haaland is then, the key of keys. He makes all of those ideas reality and therefore, his teammates must continue to help him in this endeavour.
